DAME HELEN MIRREN was once reduced to tears when JOAN RIVERS criticised her dress sense on television.

The Oscar winner was aghast when her friend Rivers and fellow fashion expert co-presenters unanimously agreed Mirren was the worst dressed person at the 1997 Golden Globe Awards.

Mirren says, "I’d won a Golden Globe many years ago and I’d just arrived from England and had my funky little English outfit on - I thought I looked pretty cool. Black suit, black boots and black feathery hat. I thought, ‘Well, I look OK.’ "Anyway, about four weeks later, I’m in Los Angeles at home watching telly and there’s Joan Rivers and she’s doing the Golden Globes thing that I was in. "So my heart beating, I started watching it thinking, ‘I think this is a mistake, Helen. I have a feeling you shouldn’t be watching this.’ I couldn’t resist. What were they going to say about me? "They (Rivers and her colleagues) all said, ‘So who was the worst dressed?’ ‘Well, Helen Mirren.’ And Joan said, ‘My God, this is a first. We have never all agreed on the person who’s worst dressed.’ "And I’m watching this on the telly, and Joan turns and looks at the screen and says, ‘Helen, get your act together. You’ve got to start dressing better.’ It was like the TV was talking at me. I cried."